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Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor makes shortlist for funding

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development was in Toronto today to announce a shortlist for funding under the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. The Toronto Waterloo Innovation Corridor is one of two Ontario bids which made the list.

According to a government press release “Building an Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster for Canada would supercharge competitiveness by positioning manufacturers as the ultimate tech integrators. It would drive collaboration between the technology and manufacturing sectors to create new solutions, scale production, speed adoption and improve efficiency.”

“This corridor is already a centre of innovation. Stretching 112 km in a wide area from Toronto to Waterloo it already contains 15,000 tech companies, 200,000 tech workers, and 16 universities and colleges. And, of course, Milton is the geographic centre of the Innovation Corridor. Today’s announcement means we are one step closer to bringing the possibilities of this area to the attention of the world.” said Scott McCammon, President & CEO of the Milton Chamber of Commerce.

The Milton Chamber of Commerce is working with a network of eight other Ontario chambers and boards of trade to champion the advanced manufacturing supercluster bid. Today’s announcement means this team will now prepare to submit a formal business plan due in late November. Five supercluster bids will be chosen from the shortlist. A final announcement on funding will be made in early 2018.